Girl On Fire
by Violet Fairychild
Summary: A collection of Kyro shorts, written for drabble requests or prompts. Genres vary, all Kitty and or Pyro centric.
1. Cherry Chapstick

Prompt: Kiss

Timeline: Pre-X2

**Cherry Chapstick**

Getting a reaction out of Kitty Pryde was possibly John's favorite hobby in the world. She tried so hard not to let him get to her, but he loved seeing the hint of scarlet that crept into her cheeks when he finally landed a choice zinger, and the way she glared daggers when he smirked at her afterwards.

He could see her sitting on the benches by the fountain with Rogue, leaning in close and still talking with her hands, though she tried to keep her gestures subtle. Stealthily he approached them from behind, keeping his ears open for anything he could use as ammo.

"…_be_ like that!" Rogue exclaimed, a slight quiver in her voice. _Trouble in paradise_, John thought to himself.

Kitty gave her a gentle rub on the arm in consolation. "It's just how they are, sometimes," she said soothingly.

John snorted. "Like you know all about how _we_ are."

Rogue and Kitty spun around to face him. "Shut up, John," they said in perfect sync.

He ignored them. "Seriously, Kitty. You've never even had a boyfriend."

"How would you know?" She rose to her feet with a huff, slinging her book bag over her shoulder. "I'll see you later, Rogue."

"Bye, Kitty." Rogue watched them go, relieved that Kitty was drawing his fire, so to speak, but a little disappointed that she had to miss the big show.

Even though Kitty was shorter than he was by almost a head, he had to lengthen his stride to keep up with her pace. "Hey, wait up."

"Not likely." Her cheeks weren't pink, but frustration was clear in her voice. He'd obviously hit a nerve with the boyfriend comment. This deserved further exploration.

"You _haven't_ had a boyfriend, have you?" he asked, jogging to fall in step alongside her.

"For your information, I _have_, and it's none of your business." She kept her eyes trained forward, refusing to make eye contact with him.

"You haven't here, because I'd have heard about it, and you came here when you were…thirteen? Grade school boyfriends don't count, Kitten," he said with half a sneer. It would have been a full sneer, but he was a little out of breath from trying to keep up with her-damn, the girl was fast.

"Don't call me Kitten." And there was the blush. Kitty burst through the front entrance of the mansion and wove her way around the students that were making their way out.

Time to go in for the kill. "I bet you've never even _kissed_ a guy."

Kitty stopped suddenly and spun on her heel to face him. John stepped back, suddenly wondering if maybe he'd finally pushed her a little too far.

What followed next would go down in school history for years to come, a story to be passed from old to young, a tale so astounding everyone shared it but few actually believed it.

Kitty Pryde grabbed John Allerdyce by the front of his hooded sweatshirt, yanked him in close, and kissed him full on the mouth.

Time froze, and students stared.

It shocked him, but not enough that he thought to pull away-in fact, he actually registered that her lips were soft and tasted slightly of cherry chapstick, and that she smelled of apple shampoo, and that being in this situation didn't bother him nearly as much as he thought it should.

Then she pushed him away and glared at him as she drew the back of her hand over her mouth. "Now I have." With that, she stomped off towards the library.

Everyone stopped staring and resumed minding their own business, because everyone knew John was not someone to be stared at unless one had a death wish, but he remained rooted in the same spot for a good five minutes after she left, with his hand on his chin, his thumb brushing his bottom lip and a big smirk firmly in place.

She'd won that battle, perhaps, but the war was far from over.


	2. Sunflowers

Prompt: Sunflowers

Timeline: Post-X3

**Sunflowers**

The walls of the visitation room were cold and grey. There were no cracks or crumbles or dingy corners like she'd imagined, just cold flat walls and cold flat fluorescent lights that were giving her a headache.

Then the guards brought him through the door, and Kitty's blood went as cold as the room. He sat down on the other side of the table and glowered at her, trying to make his hands as comfortable as they could be when they were weighed down with handcuffs and chains.

"I asked to see you," she responded to his unasked question. "I wanted to tell you that I forgive you."

"I don't need your forgiveness," he said, mouth curling around the syllables of the word as though it tasted bad. "Not gonna do me a whole hell of a lot of good in here, is it?"

"That's why I wanted to tell you," she replied. "You should know there's at least one person in the world that cares if you live or die."

He stared at her with a peculiar expression on his face. "Why do you care?"

Kitty closed her eyes, letting the memory carry her through the hurt. "Because," she whispered, "one day I wore a dress with a sunflower print and you told me I looked beautiful."

There were no more cutting remarks after that, just a fuzzy gaze from eyes that blinked at her vacantly.

"Time's up," the guard said, and John rose to his feet obediently and shuffled to the door.

Just before he walked through it, he turned to face Kitty again. "You still have that dress?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I do."

"You should wear it next time," he said, and finished walking out the door, the sound of the shackles around his arms and legs fading into the emptiness of the corridor as the door closed behind him.

"I'll do that," Kitty said to no one, and smiled for the first time since she'd arrived through the razor-wired gates.


	3. Passenger Seat

Prompt: Some variation of "Don't crack wise with me, kid."

Timeline: Pre-X2

**Passenger Seat**

"I am never letting you drive me anywhere again," Kitty Pryde snarled out the window. "We missed dinner. Mr. Summers is going to blow a gasket."

"Will you shut up already?" John Allerdyce wasn't listening to her, anyway-his attentions were focused on finding a road sign that might hint at their current location. "If _someone_ hadn't been too busy flirting with the smoothie guy, we might have made it out of there before nightfall."

"I wasn't flirting with him! His cousin lives in Deerfield, and we were trying to figure out if I knew her or not. Besides, I'm not the one who missed our off-ramp because he was too busy ogling the half-naked woman on the motorcycle."

"I was ogling the _motorcycle_. I don't always think with my dick, you know."

"Really? 'Cause right now it sounds like you're talking out your ass."

"Hey!" John stuck his finger in her face in what he hoped was a threatening manner. "Don't you crack wise with me, kid."

Kitty snorted and swatted his hand aside. "I might not have my license, but I'm three months older than you are, _kid_."

Before he could come up with an appropriately scathing response, Kitty let out a whoop of joy. "Exit on Union! I can get us back from Union!"

John obliged, and they drove on in silence, unsure of what to say now that the tension of being lost had dissipated. "So," he said, "I never knew you were three months older than me."

"Yeah?" She looked at him warily. "So?"

"So I always wanted to make it with an older woman." Even in the darkness of the car Kitty knew exactly what the expression on his face looked like.

She slugged him on the shoulder hard enough to make him flinch. "Next time, I am totally having Pete drive me."


	4. Winner Take All

Prompt: Apology

Timeline: Between X2 and X3

**Winner Take All**

She was lying horizontal across her bed, tearing paper into thin strips that fell to the floor like feathers when Bobby walked into her room without knocking. Announcing his presence had become something of a moot point these days-she didn't acknowledge him whether he did or not.

"We missed you at lunch," he said quietly. Kitty didn't even look up. Two more shreds of paper fell to the floor.

"You have to eat something, Kitty. I could bring you up a tray…?"

"Not hungry." Her hands were slow and deliberate. A careful rip, then a close examination to be sure each jagged strip was the same size as the last. He noticed that she blew gently on each piece before letting it slip from her fingertips.

Bobby stepped in front of her, kneeled until he was level with her eyes. "It wasn't your fault."

For the first time in two weeks, she lifted her head to look at him directly. "Shut up, Bobby."

"Kitty-"

"I said _shut up_." Her eyes went back to the paper in her hands. From up close, Bobby realized the paper she was shredding had writing on the side that faced her, blue ink and some blurry blotches where something had dripped on it and made the words run.

Bobby reached out and picked up the trash can, gathered a handful of paper, tossed it in. He continued until the floor was clear again, and left the gray plastic cylinder directly under Kitty's hands. She gave no indication that she noticed or cared.

"I'll be back to get you for dinner. Or Rogue will, one of us." He stood up, dusting his hands off on his pants. Bobby only took a couple of steps towards the door when he stopped and looked back. "I'm sorry, Kitty."

She lifted her eyes again. "What?"

"I could have tried harder…I just didn't think-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence, because Kitty rose to her knees on the bed, pale and shaking. "No. NO." Her hands balled into fists, and she crumpled what remained of the torn page in them. "You don't get to apologize for him."

The sudden burst of fury was startling, and Bobby took a small step back. "I wasn't apologizing for him. I mean, I'm not trying to-"

"He left, Bobby. _He_ left. So nobody owes me an apology but him, and I'm not going to forgive him until he stands in front of me and I hear him tell me what a sorry excuse for a sentient being he is." Kitty closed her eyes and let out a short, bitter laugh. "And we all know how likely that is to happen, right?" She deflated back onto the bed, curling into herself like a charred leaf.

He stood there for an awkward moment, unsure if he should comfort her or scold her or just leave her alone, until finally she spoke without looking at him. "I'll be fine, Bobby. Just…I need to be alone now. Please."

"I'll be back to get you for dinner," he repeated, but Kitty only nodded. Finally he stepped out into the hall and shut the door, resting his hand on it for a moment and leaving behind the faintest trace of frost that started to melt almost before it had finished freezing.

_Well, there you go, John,_ Bobby thought to himself. _You win by default because the rest of us lost. Hope it was worth it._


	5. Conspiracy Theory

Prompt: Glasses

Timeline: Pre-X2

**Conspiracy Theory**

"What the hell is _this_?" John stormed into the media room and slammed something down on the coffee table in front of Kitty.

She stared at it for a moment, dumbfounded. "It's a glass, John. One of those things people drink out of?"

"No, I mean what the hell was it doing in my room?"

"You were thirsty and you didn't take it back to the kitchen?" Kitty looked at him like he'd grown another head. "Is this line of questioning going somewhere, or are you practicing interrogation techniques?"

"This glass _wasn't_ in my room before I went to Ethics. Then I came back and it _was._ I have the door rigged, so I know nobody came through that way, which leaves exactly one suspect." He glared at her accusingly. "That would be you, if I haven't been obvious enough."

Kitty rolled her eyes. "John, why would I go in your room and leave a drinking glass? And why do you have your door rigged? A little paranoid, are we?"

"Because the professor won't let me put a lock on it, and I don't want anyone stealing my stuff. Or _adding_ to it," he snarled.

They locked eyes for a few intense moments, Kitty all innocence and bewilderment and John determined to make her snap. When she didn't, he snatched the glass back off the table. "Fine. But I _will_ catch you, Pryde. Just you wait." He huffed off towards the kitchen.

Jubilee, who had been watching the face-off from the other side of the couch, leaned in conspiratorially. "So what are you going to leave next time?" she said in a loud whisper.

"I dunno. I think maybe I'll short-sheet his bed," Kitty mused, turning her attention back to her book. "Serves him right for torching my English essay the day it was due."


	6. Paradox

Prompt: Prediction

Timeline: AU, post X3

**Paradox**

The first time John saw Kitty Pryde, he told Bobby she looked like he could break her in half. Bobby had laughed; she'll break you, most likely, he'd said.

He was an improbable suitor, but possibly the best match for a girl who could let the world move through her like she was nothing more than fog. After all, John was used to being intimate with the intangible.

They did not love so much as they survived, each trying to solve the living paradox the other posed. She told him he was too cold for the fire he could control; he told her she cut too deep when she phased through his arms. He touched her to the core when no one else could grasp her flesh, and she kept him warmer than any flame ever could.

It breathed life into both of them while it stayed. It did not leave them, even after the exhalation.

Seeing her at Alcatraz didn't weaken him, as he'd worried it would. Instead it strengthened his resolve, eliminated the shades of gray that clouded his thoughts whenever he thought of her. She would die and he would live, and maybe he would finally stop waking in the middle of the night with the terrible feeling that he had lost something very important.

But he didn't. Instead of waking up in the middle of the night, he found himself standing at the spot where she had fallen almost without knowing how he'd arrived there. Once a week, once a day, twice a day.

_She'll break you._

No words had been truer.


	7. Distraction

Prompt: Distraction

Timeline: Pre-X2

**Distraction**

She wouldn't stop tapping her pencil against her bottom lip, and it was driving him to distraction. Not that John could say much about the nervous habits that surfaced when one was deep in thought-he got told often enough every day to stop flipping the lid on the goddamn lighter and put it away, to which his usual response was an exaggerated _fwick-snick_ of metal before he spitefully shoved it in his pocket.

The pencil was different. Mostly because he wasn't paying attention to the pencil itself, but to the full lower lip it was tapping against. It was shiny and soft-looking, and would probably leave sticky traces of candy-flavored gloss behind after a good hard kiss. John realized he was licking his lips just thinking about it.

Then Kitty looked up and caught him staring, and blushed bright red as he raised a lecherous eyebrow at her. Narrowing her eyes, she gave him a dirty look and turned around so she couldn't see him anymore.

He could still see the side of her face over her shoulder, though, and the pencil was still tapping away.


End file.
